A day trip to the mountains of north Georgia for Fringed Gentian and other native wildflowers — 2015-10-06

The Gentianopsis crinita or Fringed Gentian’s bright blue color is impressive, so much so that it prompted several 19th century writers to take pen in hand and express their feelings upon seeing this beautiful wildflower. Three of these poets come to mind and are quoted below:

To The Fringed Gentian

Thou blossom bright with autumn dew,
And colored with the heaven’s own blue,
That openest when the quiet light
Succeeds the keen and frosty night.

Thou comest not when violets lean
O’er wandering brooks and springs unseen,
Or columbines, in purple dressed,
Nod o’er the ground-bird’s hidden nest.

Thou waitest late and com’st alone,
When woods are bare and birds are flown,
And frosts and shortening days portend
The aged year is near his end.

Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye
Look through its fringes to the sky,
Blue-blue-as if that sky let fall
A flower from its cerulean wall.

I would that thus, when I shall see
The hour of death draw near to me,
Hope, blossoming within my heart,
May look to heaven as I depart.

— William Cullen Bryant

Fringed Gentian

God made a little gentian;
It tried to be a rose
And failed, and all the summer laughed.
But just before the snows
There came a purple creature
That ravished all the hill;
And summer hid her forehead,
And mockery was still.
The frosts were her condition;
The Tyrian would not come
Until the North evoked it.
“Creator! shall I bloom?”

— Emily Dickinson

G is for Gentian

G is for Gentian
Its blue fringed cup

To the pale autumn sun
It lifts cheerily up.

When the oak leaves are red
And the nuts are a falling,

When partridges drum
And Bob White is calling,

If you look through the woods
With your eyes open wide,

You’ll perhaps find the place
Where it’s trying to hide.

— Unknown

Fringed Gentian

For the past several years, since I first found out about this meadowed site next to the woods, I have been going back in the fall to photograph these gorgeous wildflowers. The previous week, this region had received torrential rains — especially South Carolina — upwards to 27 inches (68 cm) in places near Charleston! In the upstate as well as in North Georgia, we were not left out. We received nearly 7 inches (18 cm) of rain over a period of just a couple of days. I had planned to visit the Gentian site a week earlier, but the rain prevented me from doing so.

Walter Ezell took a break from work and joined me on this trip. When we got there, it was obvious that many of the plants (this Gentian species grows to about 3 feet (1 meter) tall) had been beaten down by the relentless rain and wind. But those that were growing next to woody shrubs were still standing, and they provided some nice photography opportunities. I made sure we left home early enough so that there would still be dew on the flowers and flower buds when we arrived. At night, the flowers close and then reopen when the sun comes out — about noon at this shaded location. Of course, there are a few flowers which don’t get the email and remain open at night. These make the best subjects, I think, although the dew-covered buds are quite nice, as well:

Here is a selection of those dew-covered buds:

We spent an hour or so at this site before heading up the road to the Brasstown Valley Seeps, near Young Harris, Georgia knowing full well that we would be coming back in a few hours when the flowers would be open. Brasstown Valley Seeps is an area that is underlain with ultramafic rock. This is an igneous rock type with a very low silica content and rich in minerals such as hypersthene, augite, and olivine. It provides large quantities of the minerals Iron and Magnesium to the plants which they can get from very few places in the region. That is why there are so many unusual (for the southeast) plant species at this site. Water percolates through this rock, picking up these minerals, and emerges as wet areas and small streams which travel down the fairly steep slope of the seep.

On this trip, I was expecting to find several fall-blooming wildflowers which are relatively common at this site. One of these is the orchid, Spiranthes cernua or Nodding Ladies’-tresses orchid. It is a rather small plant with white flowers pressed close to the single stem of the plant. Here are some images of several of these native orchid plants we saw on this trip:

Although these are correctly considered to be Spiranthes cernua, a species that is quite variable in its morphology, they have certain characteristics similar to another fall-blooming Spiranthes called Spiranthes magnicamporum or Great Plains Ladies’-tresses orchid. This latter species has been found on Brasstown Bald, a mountain peak just a few miles away.

Nearby, were several beautiful bluish-purple flowers of Lobelia puberula or Downy Lobelia. These were so nice and fresh that I had to photograph them:

However, the main attraction for this location this time of year is the brightly patterned, Parnassia grandifolia or Large-leaf Grass-of-Parnassus, also fittingly called Bog Star. It is similar to another Parnassia species that is found in the region, but it can easily be identified by the dark green ovary in the center of the flower:

As we were leaving, I found one flower, although a bit past peak bloom, which harbored a small crab spider:

It was now time to catch some lunch and head back to the Fringed Gentian location to photograph the open flowers. We drove into the nearby town of Blairsville, Georgia and found a Mexican restaurant that was open for business. After finishing lunch, we drove back to the Fringed Gentian location. Instead of heading back to the meadow site, we stopped at a roadside location where the plants were growing in the ditch next to the road. The sun was out and had provided enough light for the flowers to begin to open:

I had left the following image out of my original report, but I thought it should be included. It’s a small “DO NOT MOW” sign that was placed on the roadside shoulder to notify the DOT mowing crew to leave the plants alone. It seems to have worked. The sign was placed by local neighbors who live near the site.

Surprisingly, we found a few plants of another Gentian species, Gentianella quinquefolia or Stiff Gentian at this same roadside location:

Wow! Another great day out in the field photographing wildflowers! All of the memory of the recent bad weather just melted away, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. I should mention that after we were heading home, we stopped back by the Brasstown Valley Seeps where I knew from a previous phone conversation that we would find a Flickr friend whom I had not met in person. His name is Bruce Roberts, a Georgia native who is moving from north of Atlanta, Georgia to a nearby town called Hiawassee. He is lucky to be living in a fantastically beautiful area of the Georgia mountains, dotted with lakes and providing many opportunities to find native orchids and many other wildflowers. He and his wife had just returned from a lengthy visit to Iceland, a place that is on my bucket list. Here is a link to his Flickr photo gallery.

My next trip is planned to take me back to the Carolina coastal plain for some spectacular fall wildflowers at the end of October. Until then…

–Jim